ROBERT ELSTONE has warned failure of Everton to move into a new stadium will only increase the pressure on the manager to successfully wheel and deal in the transfer market.

And the acting chief executive admits the Goodison outfit’s financial fortunes are at present largely reliant on the achievements of David Moyes and his players.

A public inquiry opens this morning into Everton’s proposed move to a 50,000-seater stadium in Kirkby, a £400m project in partnership with Tesco that the club insist is their only viable option.

Despite lacking the financial resources of many Premier League rivals off the field, Everton have secured top-six finishes in the last two seasons and are currently four points off the Champions League places.

But Elstone accepts

Moyes cannot perform such miracles forever without the greater backing a new stadium is expected to provide.

“We’re heavily exposed at the moment on the performance of the football manager,” said the acting chief executive. “There are two business models that have emerged in the Premier League.

“One is the billionaire businessman, who can just underwrite anything the manager wants. The other is a fanbase and facility-led model, which Manchester United have shown over 20 years that can be successful and Arsenal are moving in that direction.

“If you have neither of those models, you need a manager who can consistently outperform his peer group, wheeling and dealing better than the others in the transfer market. Everton has benefited from that over the last few years.

“You need an extremely good and astute manager to do that, and even the best will struggle to do that every year.

“At Everton, we have the fanbase, the potential to follow that second route that United are on. That’s what the Kirkby project can offer.”

The public inquiry is likely to run into the New Year with Everton hopeful of a decision in their favour.

But Elstone added: “We’ve done everything we can to see if there are any alternatives for the club, and in our absolute opinion there aren't any.

“If this club is to continue to compete at the top end of the Premier League, then we need a favourable decision from the inquiry in the early part of next year. This is a very, very critical game for us to win.

“I’m not worried in the long-term that we’d lose fans by moving to Kirkby. I think we can grow our fanbase by moving to Kirkby.

“Having a brand new, high quality football stadium would go some way to mitigating things like the economy and televised games, which are having an impact on our attendances at the moment.”

Elstone also revealed that for the stadium to meet the target of being operational for the start of the 2011-12 season, work must have begun by next summer.

“The current economic climate is making it harder, but we are aiming to have our first game in August 2011,” he said. “If we want to be ready by then, we need to have a spade in the ground by early next summer.”